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Poll: Are you in favor of Consumers Energy switching to smart meters?

mckee consumers.JPG

Dennis McKee, a spokesman for Consumers Energy's Smart Meter Program, addressed the Kalamazoo County Board of Commissioners during its meeting Tuesday about smart meter technology that is expected to be installed in Kalamazoo County in mid-2015.
(Alex Mitchell | Kalamazoo Gazette)

KALAMAZOO, MI — The announcement that Consumers Energy plans to begin installing "smart meters" throughout Kalamazoo County has sparked a discussion surrounding whether or not the new meters will provide benefits to utility customers.

Consumers Energy says the smart meters will eliminate the need for physical meter readings by delivering customers' daily use information directly to the company through a communication chip in each meter that sends the reading via encrypted text message.

The new technology, which will replace 2.4 million natural gas and electric meters statewide, will also allow customers to check their electric use information online, set their own billing dates, help to predict their monthly bill, and allow Consumers to know immediately when a home or business loses power, instead of the owner having to report the outage.

However, some have raised health and privacy concerns over the installation of the new meters, which is why customers have the option to opt-out of receiving a free smart meter for a one-time fee of $69.39 and an additional cost of $9.72 a month to cover traditional meter reading services.

Those wanting a smart meter removed after its been installed can get the old technology for a charge of $123.91.

Commenters appeared divided on the issue, with some expressing the technology will lead to savings of time and money for customers, while others said they don't want smart meters and don't understand why they will be charged to keep their old meters.

Reader Michelle Morgan said the new meters will allow Consumers Energy to see when utility usage increases, which would suggest a person is home. She questioned what is stopping the utility company from sharing this information with others.

"So is Consumers prohibited from sharing this information with "the government", law enforcement, or any one else without a search warrant?" she wrote. "When I am home or not home is not the government's business, and it is especially not the business of some ill-intended energy employee trying to scope out residences that may be unoccupied for nefarious purposes (such as burglary)."

Consumers Energy spokesman Dennis McKee said last fall that fewer than 1 percent of customers were choosing to opt-out of receiving the new meters, but reader Channel1 said that's to be expected when the utility company is charging to do so. He also expressed his own concerns with what might be done with the information being collected.

"Of course people aren't opting out," Channel1 wrote. They're boxed in; if they opt out, they pay extra to do so -- and it's not a one-time charge. It's forever! I, too, am concerned about the information Consumers will be collecting. What assurance do customers have that Consumers isn't going to sell our private information to Facebook, Target, or the federal government? I'm also concerned that senior citizens and the poor will unwittingly use electricity and gas during the same peak hours they do now -- resulting in much, much higher utility bills that they won't be able to afford on fixed incomes."

Reader Matt Milcarek said he isn't concerned by the technology, adding that he feels it will be beneficial.

"I think it will be good, particularly for those people who have older homes with gas meters in their basement," he wrote.

boomer1941 didn't share the same privacy concerns as other readers, but suggested people research health hazards associated with the meters and claimed there have been large movements in California and Texas to have them removed.

"I would suggest people do a good Google Search on the Health Hazards with neighborhoods flooded with these meters and how Consumers Energy can interact with the Smart Technology in home appliances," boomer1941 wrote. "These smart meters are much more than what the power companies lead you to believe."